Little Brian Stelter Blames Me for Distrust of the Media

Nov 8, 2016

RUSH: Audio sound bite number one first. Do you know why there’s so much hostility at the press, folks? Do you know why so many people don’t like the media? It has nothing to do with them. It’s because of me, and it’s because of me that Trump is comfortable criticizing the media. Here is Brian Stelter, Little Brian over on CNN.

STELTER: Trump was tapping into something that already existed: Distrust of the media, particularly on the right but among many Americans who, for various reasons, distrust the media partly, because they’re told to by conservative talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh. But Trump exploited that mistrust and deepened it, even up until tonight, at his final rally of the campaign, uh, criticizing the press — wrongly criticizing the press — saying they never turn the cameras around to show the crowd. Trump tapped into that anger toward the media and made it much, much worse. And I do think he shares partial responsibility for the hostility that we’ve seen at these rallies.

RUSH: Right. So it’s all traced back to me. Everything is. We had a caller who didn’t hang on, and I really wanted to talk to this guy. The guy wanted to know what I’m doing to prepare for various outcomes. “What am I doing to prepare for a Hillary win?” meaning on the program. “What am I doing to prepare for a Trump win?” What am I doing to prepare for this or that. I was looking forward to exploring that with the caller. ‘Cause this answer! He says I’m responsible for all of this, you see?

Yeah, I’m the one that got people to distrust the media. It is not anything the media’s doing. (snorts) No, not the fact that Donna Brazile’s sharing questions and CNN reporters are calling the DNC to ask them if this story is okay, giving them approval rights. It’s not because CNN reporters are calling the DNC and asking them for help researching hit pieces on Trump or whatever. No, no, no! It’s none of that. It’s because I am telling people to distrust the media. The media’s entirely objective and totally honest and the trustworthy, and it’s people like me that inspired Trump to really turn up the animosity, you see.